Re: [FairfieldLife] Biometrics

['Richard J. Williams' pundits...@gmail.com [FairfieldLife]]

On 8/13/2014 2:09 PM, TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] 
wrote:
I had an odd experience today. I know that there is a lot of talk and 
paranoia on the Internet these days about how much guvmints know about 
us, and whether they should know that much, but it's never really 
concerned me because I've always assumed that I was too boring for any 
guvmint to become interested in enough to want to track me.

Well, it turns out I was right. I can officially tell you that I am on 
no "watchlists" maintained by any major guvmint, for any reason 
whatsoever.

I know this because today I had to go to the Immigration Dept. to get 
my Dutch resident ID card renewed.
>
Apparently Barry was on the /U.S. Passport List/ with the U.S. 
Government and he is now on the Dutch Resident ID Card List with the 
Dutch Government. That in itself should raise a few red flags when Barry 
applies to be on the Dutch Government Welfare and Medical Care List. Go 
figure.
>
In the past it's been mainly a formality -- take a new photo, get a 
new card, outa there. But this time, they told me I'd have to report 
first to "Biometrics." So I did, waited for a bit, and then a 
*remarkably* nice guvmint official verified that my renewal papers had 
arrived in the mail and then walked me into the Biometrics Room. I 
know that's what it was called because there was a sign over the door 
that said this. :-)

He sat me down at one of two science fiction-inspired machines, on 
which I had to first look into the screen while it took my photo, and 
then allow it to take my fingerprints and sign my signature. 
Electronically, of course -- no muss, no fuss. I was finished in a 
little over a minute and then he walked me back to his desk and looked 
at the results on his own computer monitor.

He said, "That looks OK...no red flags," and then said my new ID would 
be ready in about a week. But he really *was* a remarkably nice 
guvmint official, so I told him I worked with computers and was 
curious about this "Biometrics" thang and asked him to explain it to 
me. He did, even showing me his computer screen occasionally so I 
could see what he did.

It was spooky. The moment that scifi machine took my photo, the 
biometrics of my face were instantly recorded and compared against all 
known databases of "bad faces," those presumably belonging to 
terrorists or known criminals. My fingerprints and signature got the 
same electronic scrutiny. All in the time it took for me to walk back 
to this guy's cubicle.

Fortunately, I got no "red flags," and so my new ID card is in the 
mail. But I can't help but wonder what would have happened if my 
pleasing but aging face had had similar biometrics to the face of a 
known terrorist. I suspect that if that had happened, I would be in a 
cell somewhere, and wouldn't be writing this. :-)

Anyway, this was a very science fiction movie day for me. I got to 
find out first-hand that a lot of that "science fiction stuff" we see 
on TV and in movies isn't fiction. In less than two minutes, the Dutch 
guvmint scanned all my "biometrics" and decided that I was cool to 
renew as a resident. I can't help but be impressed by the tech behind 
that, even if as a computer scientist I know how terribly badly it 
could have gone if one of the Dutch programmers who built this system 
was a fuckup.